For productivity software, Microsoft Office is not the only game in town. You can download a free copy of OpenOffice and get equivalent programs: a word processor, spreadsheet and database program. OpenOffice's spreadsheet will do most of the same things as Excel. In fact, you can even set it up to subtotal columns so it will be easier to figure out your finances and profits and losses. To do this, you use the Subtotal function, which you can access through the Function wizard.

1. Open a spreadsheet in OpenOffice.

2. Enter the values you want subtotaled in one column.

3. Select the field immediately below the last entry in the column.

4. Click the "Function Wizard" button located next to the Name Box.

5. Select "SUBTOTAL" from the "Function" list and click "Next."

6. Type the function you want the Subtotal command to perform. Functions are numbered from 1-11. See Tips for a list of functions.

7. Type the "Range" of cells you want to subtotal. Enter it like this "A1:A6." (Exclude the quotes and period). The letter represents the column your numbers are in. The numbers are the rows. In this example, you would have a subtotal of the numbers in rows 1 through 6.

8. Click "OK." You will see the subtotal of the numbers you entered in the column.

About the Author

Andrew McClain has been writing since 1994. He has written several articles for various websites and writes user guides and software manuals for several freelance clients. He has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of Missouri.